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42-498: Brothers Joseph-Claver (1855–1933) and Samuel-Marie (1859–1929) got their start in organ building in the shop of their father, Joseph Casavant , under his successor Eusèbe Brodeur . Claver worked with Brodeur during 1874–1878, then went to France for a 14-month apprenticeship with the firm of John Abbey in Versailles. He and Samuel then visited many organs and workshops in western Europe before establishing their factory in 1879 on

84-561: A treatise by Dom Bédos de Celles . The 1766 work on organ building was titled L'Art du Facteur d'Orgues (The Art of Organ Building). He subsequently used it to restore the unfinished and abandoned school's organ. News spread throughout the region with the vestry from the Ville de Laval ordering an organ. He set up business in Saint-Hyacinthe and received his first contract in 1840. In 1850, he received an order for

126-574: A church organ from Bytown , Canada West . While living there temporarily, he married his second wife Marie-Olive Sicard de Carufel . By the time he retired in 1866, he had built 17 organs, including the ones for the Catholic cathedrals of Ottawa and Kingston , and the village church in Mont-Saint-Hilaire . Casavant died in Saint-Hyacinthe on 9 March 1874. His work was carried on by his sons, Joseph-Claver and Samuel-Marie, under

168-769: A four-manual organ of eighty-two stops. This organ features adjustable combinations and speaking pipes of thirty-two foot length in the façade. They won the Grand Prix at the International Exhibition held in Antwerp , Belgium , in 1930. They built organs around the world, including Canada, the United States, France, the West Indies, South and Central America, South Africa, and Japan. Their organs have been praised by many well-known organists over

210-586: A national scandal, and several bills were introduced to parliament in the 1690s, but none became acts. There was continual agitation for reform, and in 1698 to keep the debate alive the House of Lords insisted that a bill to reform the select vestries, the Select Vestries Bill , would always be the first item of business of the Lords in a new parliament until a reform bill was passed. The First Reading of

252-423: A parish system developed to attend to social and economic needs. These changes transformed participation in the township or parish meeting, which dealt with civil and ecclesiastical demands, needs and projects. This new meeting was supervised by the parish priest (vicar/rector/curate), probably the best educated of the inhabitants, and became known as the vestry meeting. As the complexity of rural society increased,

294-400: A parochial basis. This was their principal, statutory power for many centuries. With the gradual formalisation of civil responsibilities, the ecclesiastical parishes acquired a dual nature and could be classified as civil and ecclesiastical parishes. In England, until the 19th century , the parish vestry was in effect what would today usually be called a parochial church council . Still, it

336-441: A property qualification and who were recruited largely by co-option . This took responsibility from the community at large and improved efficiency, but over time tended to lead to governance by a self-perpetuating elite. This committee was also known as the close vestry , whilst the term open vestry was used for the meeting of all ratepayers. By the late 17th century, a number of autocratic and corrupt select vestries had become

378-811: Is a feature of the Casavant playing action. During the 1960s, Casavant developed new electronic technology to the capture system of combination actions. In 1960, the company returned to mechanical action technology (while continuing to build electropneumatic action instruments as well) and has since built over two hundred tracker action instruments ranging in size from a single manual portable Continuo of four stops to two, three, and four manual organs. New technology, such as solid-state coupling and switching systems, multiplex, multi-memory combination actions and MIDI have been adopted. Other improvements, such as more effective expressive enclosures, continue to be made. The sound and style of Casavant organs has varied throughout

420-584: The American and Scottish Episcopal Churches . For many centuries, in the absence of an incorporated city or town council, the vestries were the sole de facto local government and presided over communal fundraising and expenditure until the mid or late 19th century under local established Church chairmanship. They were concerned with the spiritual and physical welfare of parishioners and their parish amenities, both secular and religious, by collecting local taxes and taking responsibility for functions such as

462-583: The Conservative Party led by Lord Salisbury and several high church Liberal politicians from 1895 to 1900. The only aspect of the original vestry remaining in current use is the annual meeting of parishioners , which may be attended by anyone on the local civil register of electors and which has the power to appoint churchwardens . A right to tax by a PCC for church chancel repairs remains as to liable (apportioned) residents and businesses across an apportioned area of many church parishes, in

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504-634: The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 this duty was transferred to elected boards of guardians for single parishes or to poor law unions for larger areas. These new bodies now received the poor law levy and administered the system. This legislation removed a large portion of the income of the vestry and a significant part of its duties. The vestries escaped the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , which brought more democratic and open processes to municipal bodies. Still, there

546-524: The care of the poor , the maintenance of roads, minor law enforcement, civil registration , and maintenance of the church building, etc. However, more serious punitive matters were dealt with by the manorial court and hundred court , or the Justices of the Peace . The functions could vary from parish to parish depending on accepted custom and necessity and the willingness of the community to fund them. This

588-552: The poor law . The original unit of settlement among the Anglo-Saxons in England was the tun or town. The inhabitants met to conduct business in the town moot or meeting, at which they would assign tasks, and the common law would be promulgated. Later with the rise of the shire , the township would send its reeve and four best men to represent it in the courts of the hundred and shire. However, township independence in

630-535: The "vestry". At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spent nearly one-fifth of the budget of the British government. They were stripped of their secular functions in 1894 (1900 in London) and were abolished in 1921. The term vestry remains in use outside of England and Wales to refer to the elected governing body and legal representative of a parish church, for example in

672-578: The 1894 Act.... 62 counties, 302 Municipal Boroughs, 31 Improvement Act Districts, 688 Local Government Districts, 574 Rural Sanitary Districts, 58 Port Sanitary Districts, 2,302 School Board Districts ... 1,052 Burial Board Districts, 648 Poor Law Unions, 13,775 Ecclesiastical Parishes, and nearly 15,000 Civil Parishes. The total number of Authorities which tax the English ratepayers is between 28,000 and 29,000. Not only are we exposed to this multiplicity of authority and this confusion of rating power, but

714-813: The German " Organ Reform Movement ". The most recent tonal directors, Jean-Louis Coignet and Jacquelin Rochette, are rooted in but not limited to the various French organ building traditions. There have been many recordings performed on Casavant Frères organs. Celebrated Canadian pianist Glenn Gould recorded his 1962 album The Art of the Fugue by Bach (Columbia Records) on a 1960 Casavant Frères organ in All Saints' Kingsway Anglican Church in Toronto – available with other Art of Fugue recordings on Sony 87759. The organ

756-477: The Saxon system was lost to the feudal manorial court leet , which replaced the town meeting. Assembly of parishes rested on land ownership, so increasingly the manorial system , with parishes assembled by lords of the manor in concert with local clergy and religious institutions. Initially, the manor was the principal unit of local administration, common customs and justice in the rural economy, but over time

798-590: The bill was made annually, but it never got any further every year. This continues to this day as an archaic custom in the Lords to assert the independence from the Crown, even though the select vestries have long been abolished. A major responsibility of the vestry had been the administration of the Poor Law. Still, the widespread unemployment following the Napoleonic Wars overwhelmed the vestries, and under

840-408: The church and its services, the keeping of the peace, the repression of vagrancy, the relief of destitution, the mending of roads, the suppression of nuisances, the destruction of vermin, the furnishing of soldiers and sailors, and the enforcement of religious and moral discipline. These were among the many duties imposed on the parish and its officers, that is to say, the vestry and its organisation, by

882-489: The church replaced the manorial court in key elements of rural life and improvement—it levied its local tax on produce, tithes . By the early Tudor period the division of manors and the new mercantile middle class had eroded the old feudal model, These changes accelerated with the Reformation in the 1530s, with the sequestration of religious houses and the greatest estates of the church, and under Mary I and others,

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924-425: The company's history. The Casavant brothers themselves, Samuel and Claver Casavant, reflected mostly influences from contemporary France, but they traveled widely and visited many European instruments. They later brought in an Englishman, Stephen Stoot, under whose direction the tonal palette reflected additional influences from England. Later tonal directors, Lawrence Phelps and Gerhard Brunzema, contributed styles from

966-694: The ecclesiastical parish. This is sometimes referred to as the "annual vestry meeting". Parochial church councils now undertake all other roles of the vestry meetings. The term vestry continues to be used in some other denominations , denoting a body of lay members elected by the congregation to run the business of a church parish. This is the case in the Scottish , and the American Episcopal Churches, and in Anglican ecclesiastical provinces such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In

1008-505: The firm name of Casavant Frères . Little of Casavant's work survives today, however the company his two sons established retains the copy of de Celles' work. Vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England , Wales and some English colonies , which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church , and consequently became known colloquially as

1050-470: The form of chancel repair liability however, in some areas no such further taxation replaced tithes. The vestry was a meeting of the parish ratepayers chaired by the incumbent of the parish, originally held in the parish church or its vestry, from which it got its name. The vestry committees were not rooted in any specific statute, but they evolved independently in each parish according to local needs from their roots in medieval parochial governance. By

1092-612: The increasing number of local boards which came into being and operated across greater areas than single parishes for a specific purpose. These were able to levy their rate. Among these were the local boards of health created under the Public Health Act 1848 ( 11 & 12 Vict. c. 63), the burial boards, which took over responsibility for secular burials in 1853, and the Sanitary districts , which were established in 1875. The church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and

1134-467: The last 100 years, including Guilmant, Vierne, Widor, Bonnet, Lemare, Dethier, Courboin, Bingham, and many others who inaugurated and played Casavant organs. Casavant organs are also found in colleges, universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Canada. After the death of the Casavant brothers, the company continued to add innovations to their instruments. These include a particularly reliable key contact and tracker touch mechanism, which

1176-441: The late 17th century they had become, along with the county magistrates, the rulers of rural England. In England, until the 19th century , the parish vestry committee equated to today's parochial church councils plus all local government responsible for secular local business, which is now the responsibility of a District Council as well as in some areas a Civil Parish Council , and other activities, such as administering locally

1218-419: The law of the land, and by local custom and practice. This level of activity resulted in an increasing sophistication of administration. The parish clerk would administer the decisions and accounts of the vestry committee, and records of parish business would be stored in a "parish chest" kept in the church and provided for security with three different locks, the individual keys to which would be held by such as

1260-450: The parish priest and churchwardens . While the vestry was a general meeting of all inhabitant rate-paying householders in a parish, in the 17th century the huge growth of population in some parishes, mostly urban, made it increasingly difficult to convene and conduct meetings. Consequently, in some of these a new body, the select vestry , was created. This was an administrative committee of selected parishioners whose members generally had

1302-526: The qualification, tenure, and mode of election of members of these Authorities differ in different cases." Under the Act, secular and ecclesiastical duties were finally separated when a system of elected rural parish councils and urban district councils was introduced. This removed all secular matters from the parish vestries, and created parish councils or parish meetings to manage these. The parish vestries were left with only church affairs to manage. Following

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1344-544: The removal of civil powers in 1894, the vestry meetings continued to administer church matters in Church of England parishes until the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1921 Act established parochial church councils as their successors. Since then, the only remnant of the vestry meeting has been the meeting of parishioners , which is convened annually solely for the election of churchwardens of

1386-455: The secular and ecclesiastical aspects of the vestries were separated. The vestry's remaining secular duties were transferred to newly created parish councils . Their ecclesiastical duties remained with the Church of England , until they were abolished and replaced by parochial church councils (PCCs) in 1921. This secularisation of local government was unsuccessfully opposed by administrations of

1428-465: The site of their father's workshop on rue Girouard in Saint-Hyacinthe. Casavant's instruments boasted many innovations unique for that time, such as concave pedalboards, balanced expression pedals, keyboard improvements, and other enhancements. Their reputation as organ builders of international status was cemented in 1891 with their construction of the organ for the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica ,

1470-515: The upkeep of roads in the parish, while the Tudor poor laws ; a series of laws introduced through the period, made vestries responsible for the care of the poor of the parish. At the high point of their powers before removal of Poor Law responsibilities in 1834, the vestries spent not far short of one-fifth of the budget of the British government. During the 19th century, their secular functions were gradually eroded, and finally in 1894 (1900 in London)

1512-414: The vestries spent not far short of one-fifth of the budget of the national government itself. More than 15,600 ecclesiastical parish vestries looked after their own: churches and burial grounds, parish cottages and workhouses, endowed charities, market crosses, pumps, pounds, whipping posts, stocks, cages, watch houses, weights and scales, clocks, and fire engines. Or to put it another way: the maintenance of

1554-462: The vestry meetings acquired greater responsibilities and were given the power to grant or deny payments from parish funds. Although the vestry committees were not established by any law and had come into being in an unregulated process, it was convenient to allow them to develop. For example, they were the obvious body for administering the Edwardian and Elizabethan systems for support of the poor on

1596-577: Was a gradual movement to separate the vestry's ecclesiastical and secular duties. The Vestries Act 1850 prevented the holding of meetings in churches, and in London, vestries were incorporated under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 to create properly regulated civil bodies for London parishes. Still, they did not have any ecclesiastical duties. As the 19th century progressed, the parish vestry progressively lost its secular duties to

1638-422: Was also responsible for all the secular parish business now dealt with by civil bodies, such as parish councils. Eventually, the vestry assumed a variety of tasks. It became responsible for appointing parish officials, such as the parish clerk, overseers of the poor, sextons and scavengers, constables, and nightwatchmen. At the high point of their powers, just prior to removal of Poor Law responsibilities in 1834,

1680-472: Was because their power derived initially from custom and was only occasionally ratified by the common law or asserted in statute. However during the Tudor period (1485–1603), parish vestries were given increased statutory duties; for example, the compulsory parish register of baptisms, marriages and burials was introduced in 1538, and under the Highways Act 1555 , the vestries became responsible for

1722-694: Was destroyed by fire in 1966. A new Casavant organ, opus 3874 (2009), replaced it. Joseph Casavant Joseph Casavant (1807 – 1874) was a French Canadian manufacturer of pipe organs . Casavant was born 23 January 1807 in Saint-Hyacinthe , Lower Canada to Dominique Casavant and Marie-Desanges Coderre. Originally a blacksmith , Casavant gave up his trade at age 27 to pursue classical studies in Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville . While at Father Charles-Joseph Ducharme's college in 1834, he happened upon

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1764-565: Was made voluntary in 1868. However, the proliferation of these local bodies led to a confusing fragmentation of local government responsibilities, and this became a driver for large scale reform in local government, which resulted in the Local Government Act 1894 . The problem of so many local bodies was expressed by H H Fowler , President of the Local Government Board, who said in the parliamentary debate for

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